Question

Describe Pangaea and its breakup, and explain the physical evidence that crustal drifting is continuing today.

Answer 1

Answer:

Pangea is the supercontinent that existed at the end of the Perm and Trias, 250 to 210 million years ago, from which all current continents originated. It was surrounded by one ocean, Panthalassa. Pangea was one large land mass that eventually broke through the plate tectonics.

Pangea began to fall apart during the Jurassic. First, a three-armed rift formed between what would become the continents of Africa, South America, and North America. Volcanic activity created a basin that would later become the Atlantic Ocean. Pangea was first split into two paleocontinents, Laurazia and Gondwana (South America remained part of Gondwana for some time). Then both paleocontinents split further into the continents of today.

The process of crustal drift continues its course today, that is, the continents continue to move. As proof of this we have the constant distance from the American and African coasts, which result in an annual expansion of the Atlantic Ocean of 1 cm.